Happenings

We're really having a great summer. Just a bunch of this and that. No official plans, no vacations to prepare for, no impending guests (although my mom and aunt are working on a trip down in July!), no summer camps, no scheduled activities. It's great!

So what have we been doing?

Well...

Daddy loves his pressure washer. He has noticably been interacting more with the girls lately (amazing how that happens with men when the kids stop being babies and daddies discover how much fun it can be to teach them stuff!) So he was out pressure washing the driveway the other day when he decided to call out the girls to get in on the action. They loved it...







Sarah also got a little work done on Dad's tires...


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In these uncertain economic times, I have been doing my part by keeping Target in business. It is a sickness, really. I can't stay away. On our never-ending quest to find something exciting for the backyard since we ripped the trampoline out of the ground, tore it to shreds, and stomped on it for good measure (to find out why, visit here or here), I recently spotted a three-lane slip-n-slide at said store.







I really thought I was on to something here until Daddy had a nervous breakdown over the torn up grass. So now its been sitting in a pile on the deck the last few days while we let the grass dry out and negotiate the finer details of what is more important in life...beautiful grass or our kids enjoying their backyard...hmmmm.

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The girls and I had a lovely time chatting while sitting around the table in our screened in porch yesterday. I started a story and then we'd go around the table adding to it. They seemed to enjoy it. Or rather, they seem to enjoy my undivided attention. :) While we were chatting, I noticed an unusual caterpillar climbing the screen. After crazy screams and gathering of bug nets, we got the little beast and decided to check on line for its species. We discovered we had found an American Dagger Moth Caterpillar




A little learning never hurt anyone in the summer, right? Since it turns into such an ugly moth, we decided to release it back into the wild rather than try to create a habitat where it would hopefully cocoon and turn into a butterfly. We have actually been successful at that once or twice, but more often than not, they cocoon and leave it at that, never realizing their full potential. Perhaps they are just afraid of emerging to so many screaming, squealing little girls.

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I have discovered that the girls love sitting at the counter on barstools. We never have utilized this space for sitting before. I bought some nifty Batter Blaster pancake mix at Costco last week. It comes in an aerosol spray can (like redi-whip) and you just squirt it out onto the skillet. The girls love it and they sit at the counter as I make one after the other. The only problem is we only have 2 barstools, so the younger 3 fret, whine, and cry over who gets the two coveted stools. Obviously I am going to have to pick up one more (my big E is too old and above all this ridiculous behavior over a barstool! :)




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Well, speaking of pancakes, Mady has taken her post on one of the barstools and is begging me to unglue my eyeballs from my computer and make her some. I am off!